codinghorror | 2020-03-25 22:34:59 UTC | #1 Originally published at: https://blog.discourse.org/2016/12/discourse-new-user-tips-and-tricks/
If you’re new to Discourse, here are a few quick tips and tricks to get you started: Reading Selecting a title from the topic list will always take you to your last read post in the topic. To enter at the top or bottom instead, select the reply count or last reply date. Topics above… ------------------------- codinghorror | 2016-12-16 12:38:53 UTC | #2 If there are any other tricks and tips -- non-obvious essentials that **every new Discourse user should know**, please provide suggestions on that here. ------------------------- JagWaugh | 2016-12-22 07:17:46 UTC | #4 As a newbie to Discourse, and being silly enough to volunteer to be a moderator just as we went live on the new platform I felt a distinct need for a "New Moderator tips and tricks" topic. Meta had most of the information I was looking for, but it appears as mixed in with more technical admin information. How about a similar theme for new mods? ------------------------- codinghorror | 2018-11-05 22:49:36 UTC | #22 [quote="JagWaugh, post:4, topic:54341"] I felt a distinct need for a “New Moderator tips and tricks” topic [/quote] I believe that is over at https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-moderation-guide/63116 ------------------------- tobiaseigen | 2019-10-23 18:18:39 UTC | #23 Loving this post and linking all new members to it from my community. Thank you! I'd suggest adding a line or two at the bottom along the lines of ... > There you go, that should be enough to get you started. Have fun! As you spend time on discourse forums more power features will be revealed to you. :sparkles: In case you are curious, you can also check out the full https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-new-user-guide/96331. ------------------------- ChristopherMcEwan | 2020-03-15 09:35:47 UTC | #42 [quote="tobiaseigen, post:23, topic:54341"] Discourse New User Guide [/quote] Any advice/thoughts on creating a new post vs reviving an older discussion? What is the etiquette/preference? (the pop up reminding me that post is old discourages me from reviving but otherwise we get topic proliferation and useful context is lost). My question relates to conduct here on meta. and how I should encourage members on my forum. ------------------------- pfaffman | 2020-03-15 16:23:31 UTC | #43 [quote="ChristopherMcEwan, post:42, topic:54341"] My question relates to conduct here on meta [/quote] Just make your best guess. Does your issue connect to the old thing or is it different now? If it's the same, is your issue addressed in the topic already? For your own forum, it's up to you and your community to decide. ------------------------- ChristopherMcEwan | 2020-03-16 00:52:56 UTC | #44 Yep. I think my bias is to repurpose existing threads unless topic is distinctly different. Stops post proliferation. Will promote this approach. ------------------------- twitch.tv_Grilvhor | 2020-03-31 16:44:18 UTC | #45 Hi all, 1. Can I redirect users from my community to tutorials in this community? 2. Can I translate these contents and add them in my discourse? Source page would be specified of course. Thanks ------------------------- jomaxro | 2020-03-31 16:56:53 UTC | #46 Yes and Yes. Happy to see this being helpful. ------------------------- twitch.tv_Grilvhor | 2020-03-31 17:06:04 UTC | #47 Great, I expected no less from you guys! :slight_smile: Thanks! ------------------------- fedorov | 2020-09-02 21:21:35 UTC | #49 I would add something about editing a post. I see it quite often that a correction to a post is added as a reply to the post, and it is not obvious that the existing post could have been edited. ------------------------- Heliosurge | 2023-01-26 04:38:26 UTC | #83 Awesome topic! So I will share a tip. At times you might be a designer or simply a mod. Someone decides up the chain to change the domain name! This breaks the links on the site! I am sure there might be a command line option to rebake posts? I am not sure the procedure off hand. However there is a way we can alleviate this issue as these are internal links. This link for example might be used as follows [code] https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-new-user-tips-and-tricks/54341?u=heliosurge [First Post Here](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-new-user-tips-and-tricks/54341?u=heliosurge) [/code] Same link with https://domain striped. [code] [First Post Here](/t/discourse-new-user-tips-and-tricks/54341?u=heliosurge) [/code] Try it [First Post Here](/t/discourse-new-user-tips-and-tricks/54341?u=heliosurge) Now maybe you don't want to be racking up badges for links simply remove in my case ?u=hekiosurge No more credits for the link. 😏 You can also use this to credit another user by swapping your name with theres. 😁 Now we have learned with the Share Link Shortner Theme-component we can strip a lot of extras out of it. Now see how much shorter the link can become with topic name removed. [code] [First Post Here](/t/54341) [/code] [First Post Here](/t/54341) This of course only works for internal links. but can be quite handy. ------------------------- user11 | 2023-03-04 07:10:40 UTC | #84 Thank you. Very helpful for a new user like me :grinning: ------------------------- Marcelo_Hernández | 2023-04-27 09:06:15 UTC | #87 Thank you . Really helpful post ! ------------------------- UncleSpellbinder | 2024-03-27 05:06:37 UTC | #89 Great post with excellent tips. Thanks! ------------------------- vanderjagtfrank | 2024-07-27 12:22:10 UTC | #92 Well i am new on here as we are setting up a forum for our oldtimer moped club BOLUZ. One of the new members was quite enthusiastic about Discourse sonwe decided to give it a go and move from PHPPB to Discourse. Now we all need to find our way a bit but with all the tutorials you guys provide we have come a long way in our trial period and soon hope to put the new Forum live. Learned lots in the short time we have been experimenting now. So big thank you for the patience and help so far. ------------------------- pierrox | 2025-08-26 07:50:34 UTC | #94 Great tips there. Topic should be updated for the new input box and its wysiwyg mode though. ------------------------- Style_Concierge | 2025-11-21 18:09:23 UTC | #95 This is so awesome! These are really good tips and tricks for a beginner like myself! 🙂 ------------------------- Yourdecorchoices | 2026-01-15 07:22:37 UTC | #97 Thanks, it is helpful. :slightly_smiling_face: ------------------------- Samantha_Ramirez | 2026-01-26 21:06:08 UTC | #98 Im really new here, but it looks like you can just copy the link, so yes. But maybe users would be leaving your forum, temporary, unless there is a way to embed that ------------------------- Numerosaletras | 2026-02-24 05:52:39 UTC | #99 Thanks for sharing, this is very helpful. ------------------------- xiaoqi_dong | 2026-03-12 07:37:00 UTC | #100 感谢感谢，对我们很有帮助，有了方向，非常好，特别好，真的真的 ------------------------- ferdnyc | 2026-05-12 09:10:22 UTC | #101 [quote="ChristopherMcEwan, post:42, topic:54341"] Any advice/thoughts on creating a new post vs reviving an older discussion? What is the etiquette/preference? [/quote] (Over six years later, which really makes this a practical demonstration of exactly the thing we're talking about I suppose...) I find it varies from community to community, and from person to person. My inclination is like yours, I'm big into thread necromancy as I feel it can save time having to re-cover old ground. But, *wow* is there some disagreement on that point. [quote="ChristopherMcEwan, post:42, topic:54341"] (the pop up reminding me that post is old discourages me from reviving but otherwise we get topic proliferation and useful context is lost). [/quote] The necromancy banner encourages you to *consider* whether you should revive an old post --- if you feel it's discouraging you, then it seems like your conclusion is that you shouldn't. If a community is really serious about preventing revival of old posts, they'll usually set them to auto-lock after a certain period of inactivity. If they don't do that, then it's at least tacit admission that there might be valid reasons to resurrect old discussions. There are, however, also reasons not to. ## Pros 1. As you said, it can save time not having to cover old ground 2. You don't end up with multiple discussions on the same topic 3. The people who already participated in the discussion, and presumably have interest in and/or knowledge about the topic, will get notified of your reply. ## Cons 1. Everyone who previously participated in the discussion will get notified. And the longer ago it was and the more participants that represents, the more of them may be annoyed about being dragged back in to an old discussion that they considered long since settled. 2. Particularly in tech support forums, resurrecting an old discussion often means conflating issues --- a problem you're having today may *seem* related to one discussed five years ago, but it's likely that was a completely different version of the software/hardware, and it may not be related at all. You want to make REALLY sure that you're talking about the same issue, and if there's even a sliver of doubt it's better to open a new discussion focused just on the current situation. There's probably less value than you may think in dragging along the baggage of a 5-year-old report, for a problem you're experiencing today. But, like I said, that's why tech support forums, in particular, usually have discussion auto-lock rules in place. -------------------------